“First Swallows”: Ukrainian Version of Netflix Hit Raises Relevant Teen Issues

Drugs, suicide, bullying and LGBT themes are the key to the success of a teen series.

The Ukrainian series “First Swallows” has become a real sensation of the autumn TV season. Never before has Ukrainian television so openly addressed real teen problems — drugs, depression, suicide, bullying. To some extent, the series can be considered the Ukrainian version of the popular Netflix series “13 Reasons Why”.

Why It's Worth Watching

“First Swallows” is a Ukrainian TV series from New Channel about the lives of high school students and everyday problems: bullying, rejection and lack of understanding from parents, peers and even friends. 

According to the creators, they drew on personal experiences for the script, so most characters have real-life prototypes. So the series can, to some extent, be called based on real events.

One heroine suffers because of her mother's ambitions; the mother does not listen to her daughter and is building an acting career for her. The woman does not mince words, not thinking about the child's feelings: “Eat less, maybe then you'll stop failing auditions”. 

Another character tries to accept his homosexuality despite a homophobic father. The creators managed to portray homosexuality as close to life as possible — you wouldn't tell from ordinary guys and girls that they have a non-traditional sexual orientation. After all, they feel, love and experience things like everyone else. Outwardly they are no different from their peers either.

Another character tries to draw adults' attention to teens' problems and feelings through video clips: “Hello, parents, open your eyes, or do we all have to die for you to notice us?”.

The Ukrainian version of “13 Reasons Why”

In 2017, Netflix released “13 Reasons Why” on the topics of teen suicide, depression and bullying. The plot revolves around the suicide of a schoolgirl who, before her death, described the reasons for her suicide on tapes sent to a friend. Each tape told the story of a separate person who had treated the dead girl badly.

The series became a hit among teens, and some parent organizations demanded it be banned “because of its potential to cause harm”. Netflix recently removed a 3-minute scene depicting the main character's suicide. The creators explained the idea of the series as giving teens a chance to be heard and showing the importance of support and care from loved ones.

“First Swallows” pursues the same idea, with a plot centered on a schoolgirl's suicide. Even screenwriter and producer Yevgeny Tunik does not deny the similarity between the series, although he claims he watched “13 Reasons Why” only after “Swallows” had been created.

Yevgeny Tunik
screenwriter and producer of “First Swallows”

I hadn't seen this series yet back then; later I watched it, I loved it, it's very cool, even awesome. Is there any overlap in theme? Yes — the basic storyline is taken, when a child dies and we try to understand why it happened. I don't know whether this can be considered copyright; I wouldn't have done it that way, it's a similar theme and, yes, this theme already exists in America.

The series loudly calls for dialogue on sensitive topics

Society prefers to stay silent about unpleasant but important problems: depression, homophobia, body shaming, drugs, bullying, suicide and others. At the same time, everyone to one degree or another faces these during growing up.

The main goal of “First Swallows” is to help parents recognize the first signs of depression in their child and to pay attention to his problems, understand them and help solve them. The series clearly shows the consequences of loneliness, depression and lack of support among teens.

Oleksiy Symonchuk